Foundling
by Ponytales
Summary: When an infant comes through an anomaly it reminds Abby a bit too much of her own childhood. She can't let that happen again. Set between series 3 and 4. Conner/Abby
1. Chapter 1

A/N This story is set between just before season 4 starts. In this universe they were only trapped for a few weeks and aren't a couple. They're still dancing around each other, but I wanted the whole Jess/Becker on the side.

Disclaimer: I don't own Primeval.

Summery: When an infant comes through an anomaly it reminds Abby a bit too much of her own childhood. She can't let that happen again.

Warnings: Contains hints of a rough childhood, nothing graphic.

Rating: Strong T in later chapters

More A/N: This is a bit of a departure for me...writing a conventional couple and writing a kid into the mix. I've never really been around babies so I was forced to consult the baby books at the local bookstore and I am **so** happy no one that I know caught me flipping through 'Babies first year'. That would have been awkward...

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"We got an anomaly!" Connor Temple whooped out loud from his place right in the center of the ops floor., "It's right near here, not two kilometers away. Warehouse district."

"Creature incursion?" His boss, James Lester demanded to know from up on the ramp.

"No...Yes! We have an incursion. Location locked." Connor's fingers flew over his keyboard as he uploaded the address into the GPS devices while the team ran for the cars. Jess took over the computer system while Connor was busy sprinting for the last SUV.

Twenty minutes later they were standing outside a warehouse while a soldier jimmied the lock open. "It's definitely in there." Connor felt his dad's ring under his shirt raise up and pull towards the unseen anomaly. The soldiers rushed in first to clear the building, Abby, Matt and himself went in second. Inside it looked like every other empty warehouse they'd seen. There were a few containers scattered around and a broken down forklift sitting in one corner.

"There it is."

Bright and shimmering in the air about two feet above the floor they saw the time anomaly glinting at them in a innocent way that belied how dangerous it was.

"Where's the creature?" Abby asked casually without lowering her weapon.

"Here sir!" One of the soldiers that was checking the perimeter called out to Becker, "I've found a woman."

Connor and Abby ran over towards the corner where two of the soldiers were pulling a woman out of the crack between a beam and the wall that she was hiding in. She was covered in blood.

"Lay her down, gently there." Becker started to examine her quickly. "What happened to you?"

It was obvious she was from another time. Her heavy woolen skirts and hand woven blouse belonged to a period centuries gone, she had red hair and pale skin, made paler by the blood loss. Becker pulled her shirt up to try and find the source of bleeding. She moaned and tried to stop him with a panicked, weak jerking that stabbed right into Abby's heart.

"Let me," Abby ducked in and got the woman's attention. "We're trying to help you, we're not gonna hurt you. What happened?"

The woman focused in on Abby's face and with a shock Abby realized that she was just a teenager, barely older than sixteen or seventeen. "Raiders, raiders, they killed all of them...I ran...my babe!" The woman tried to sit up and dive back into the crack she had been hiding in, "My babe!" She had a thick accent but she was definitely speaking English.

"Stay there, stay there," Becker held her down. Connor slipped behind the beam and called out, "Look at this now," He stepped back towards them holding a tiny bundle in a bit of blanket. "It's a baby."

The woman gasped and tried to reach for the baby, Connor rushed to her side. "Let us stop the bleeding." She nodded, and with the last of her strength she passed out. Becker started the first aid exam he had been trying to carry out. With no regard for modesty he peeled her bloody shirt up and swore. He was looking at her intestines laying open through several large gashes that looked like they were made by a sword.

"Where's that ambulance!" He shouted while applying pressure to where the worst of the bleeding was, "Get the stretcher, we'll meet them outside, Connor, lock that anomaly."

"Right." Connor was still holding the baby. "Abby," He passed the child over and went to fiddle with the locking device. The soldiers had already set it up and were just making the final connections to power it up when he got there. Abby looked down at the bundle Connor hurriedly pressed into her arms and was drawn into the little scrunched up face that stared back at her with eyes every bit as blue as her own.

Connor's fingers were flying over the keyboard to lock the anomaly when it flashed again and two men fell out. They were nasty types dressed in a combination of leather and heavy wool that was filthy and reeked. They both raised bloody swords in front of them and rushed at Connor with a wild shrieking battle cry.

"Whoa!' He yelped and jumped back. He dodged the two berserk man while two of the soldiers pegged them both. They collapsed, unconscious from the electric pulse. Once they were out Connor went over to examine them. "Look at that, they're Vikings!"

"What do we do with them sir?"

Connor picked up one of their swords and looked at the clotty, goopy blood on it carefully, then glanced over at the nearly dead woman they were pursuing as the other squad carried her out. "Chuck'um back through. I'll lock it. We've got no use for real Vikings in this day and age."

The squad wasn't unprofessional enough to cheer him on but they did hurl the two Vikings back through the anomaly with more force than was strictly necessary. He locked the anomaly and then went back over to Abby. They could hear sirens in the distance.

"The girl is dead." Abby told him abruptly. "She stopped breathing about when those two came through. They were doing CPR on her outside but she was sliced up really badly."

"Oh no. Oh no." He blinked a bit and glanced about for a moment before his attention was drawn to one tiny waving fist. "What about him?"

"I don't know. We'll take him back to the ARC, get him checked out by our doctors. If we take him to the regular hospital they're going to want proof of who he is."

"All right." Connor put his hand on her back and started to guide her back to the car when he caught a whiff of something rank. "We'll stop at the store and get some nappy's or something right?"

"Yeah Conn." Abby agreed with him wholeheartedly. Mysterious dampness was running down her arm. "Find me a towel or something will you?"

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Back at the ARC they delayed going to Lester long enough to give the baby a quick cleanup in the lav and stick a nappy on. Him turned out to be a her. One of the other woman that helped Abby get her cleaned up guessed that she wasn't more than two or three months old.

The little bald girl giggled when they wiped her off and waved wildly at them once her hands were free of the blanket. "She's a lively one, what's going to happen to her?" Grace asked Abby as they walked towards Lester's office.

"I don't know." Abby replied as she joined everyone waiting for her in the office.

"So this is our time traveling, Viking attack surviving infant?" Lester asked in his dry stoic way. "It's a girl. She seems healthy. I was going to take her over to medical after the debrief." Abby told them all as she very carefully and awkwardly shifted the baby around.

Lester came around the desk and looked at the baby's face carefully. "I'll call child services and spin some story about her being abandoned in an alley." He tried to take the baby from Abby.

"No!" She said, shocked. "You can't do that to her!" Abby glanced around the room, there were entirely too many people here for this. It wasn't until Lester brought up child services that Abby made up her mind. "Can I talk to you privately? Please?" The earnest tone of her voice made Lester purse his lips irritably in consent instead of just dismissing her.

"Fine." He jerked his head at the door and obediently everyone else trailed out, Connor last of all giving Abby a very curious look.

Abby hesitated and considered how she could possibly convince Lester, she decided to be blunt, "I got taken into care when I was nine years old."

"I know." Lester told her gently from where he was perched on the edge of his desk, "I read your personal file. You went through nearly forty foster homes and ran away a dozen times before you were seventeen. They locked you in juvie just so you'd stay put long enough to finish school "

Abby looked at him sharply. She didn't know that that was in her file. That meant Connor knew she had been housed in juvenile detention for a year also, he was so damned nosy. She dragged her attention back to the present problem and resolved to jump Connor about peeking into her file again later.

"Yeah well, I'm not discussing my reasons for all that with you, but I can't let you send her into care. I can't. Let me keep her until I can find someone to adopt her. She needs a real family not the fake concern of some caseworker." Abby pleaded with him and tried not to wonder what else was in her ARC file that Connor knew about.

Lester had no intention of telling her he had read the file social services had on her, along with all the police reports and attached medical statements. She wanted to keep her privacy and he was fine with that but it did make things awkward. Given the way social services had failed her, the petite blonde was going to throw a fit to keep this baby away from them.

When Abby was upset then Connor got in a tizzy and together they'd probably do something rash that he would then have to cover up to the public and defend to his superiors. This could lead to all sorts of unwanted incidents. Suddenly, he hit upon a solution but it was far from ideal.

He tried one last time to convince her that she didn't really want to do this.

"Abby, I must say I never expected you to have a maternal side like this. While I respect your reasons for this you have no idea the amount of work that goes into a baby. She's not an iguana with wings that you can just drop a bowl of veg on the floor to feed."

"I know that!" She snapped. "But I can't let you just give her into care."

Lester rolled his eyes at the ceiling. "Fine. You want her, you can have her but you have to keep her. I can make a file for her and explain where she came from but if we drag random people and adoption into this it gets messy. I don't like messy."

Abby thought about what he was saying and looked down at the little face. The little girl was yawning and blinking. She never could turn down a lost creature. "All right. I'll keep her. We have a daycare in the ARC. Half my friends are single mothers. I'll make this work."

"You had better." He told her sourly, "now you have to go explain to your not-boyfriend that you're now a mum."

"Thank you!" Abby grinned at him and turned to go. Lester called after her, "ask him if he wants to be a dad. I've got to put someone on the birth certificate. Take the rest of the day off. You've got some shopping to do. Word of advise?"

Abby turned at the door and looked at him.

"Don't skimp on the nappies."

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Connor was waiting when Abby came out and headed towards the medical section.

"Well? What did you want to talk to him about?"

"I'm keeping her." Abby said bluntly. "I have to. I can't let her life be an endless stream of foster parents and group homes." She pleaded with him to understand, even though she knew she had never shared any details of her childhood, but there was her stupid file he had read...

"Keeping her?" He stopped walking. "We're going to have a baby?" Abby shot him a glare as a passing tech stopped and stared at them both. "At the house." He amended quickly. She groaned, "Yes Connor."

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During the medical exam the doctor pronounced the baby healthy, about ten weeks old and very hungry. The wailing was a big tip off. They dipped a clean washcloth in water and let her suck on it. She didn't really like it but she latched on anyway.

Connor left to go to the store and buy a car seat. Abby was waiting at the ARC, surrounded by the female staff and trying not to be overwhelmed by all the advise she was getting. It didn't help that a lot of it was conflicting.

She was very grateful when Connor returned. He had taken the time to install the infant seat in the back of his car. Abby saw bags full of little nappies and formula overflowing next to the seat. They loaded the baby up and headed home. She had cried herself to sleep when they first strapped her in.

"What all did you buy?" Abby whispered, hoping she didn't wake the baby up.

"The seat, of course and some nappies, pacifier, bottle, two different kinds of formula, I was going to let you pick which one would be better. I don't know very much about babies and some clothes. We'll still need loads of stuff, I didn't know babies needed so much stuff. I went into information overload a bit. I can't wait until we can go back together."

She raised an eyebrow at him, "I'm glad you're excited about this."

"Oh, and I got some books. You know the old joke, they don't come with an instruction manual? There's a baby book called 'Baby Manual'. Got that one." He was inordinately proud of himself.

"Thanks Connor. I'm going to need that."

The baby slept all through the car ride and Connor unfastened the whole car seat and passed it to Abby to take in while he gathered up the bags of extra stuff that had caught his fancy.

Once she was in the house Abby Matlain was at a complete loss at what she was supposed to do next. Thankfully Connor had it together. "Here," He whispered as he pushed two large tins into her hands, "which one should we use?" Abby looked down at the two different brands of formula. She flipped them both over and started to look at the nutrition information. They were both nearly identical.

"I don't think it matters. She's still sleeping, should we wake her up and feed her now or later?" Abby turned to Connor, who knew just as little about babies as she did. "She hasn't eaten in at least four hours. I think we should feed her. How do we cook it?"

Together they pulled the new bottles out of the boxes and washed them. The instructions on the back advised using a bottle sterilizer and boiling everything. They did the best they could and carefully measured out the formula into the hot water and shook the little bottle up.

"Baby, baby," Connor said as he unfastened the straps that held the infant into the seat.

She woke up abruptly and scrunched up her face and bawled. "Oh baby," Connor fished her out of the carrier and passed her to Abby, who had the bottle. Gingerly Abby poked it at her face. She spit the nipple out. Abby tried again. Stubbornly the baby spit the nipple back out and bawled louder.

"What do we do?" Connor asked. Abby tried a trick she had learned at the zoo and gently pressed the nipple above the shrieking child's lip, so that the formula ran down into her mouth.

The baby started licking her lips and they could see her trying to suck something. Having the food hit her mouth seemed to be the trigger. When Abby tried the bottle the third time it didn't get spit out.

"I'll get this stuff unpacked." Connor said. Abby nodded agreement as she sat down on the couch with the baby. "I have no idea what I'm doing." Abby confessed.

"That's fine. That's why I got the books." Connor glanced over and saw Abby was honestly getting upset. "Hey, look at me." He slid down beside her on the couch and hugged her with one arm. "You've never really talked about you childhood, and that's fine, I've never really talked about mine but my point is, you'll be a better mum than some paid guardian that doesn't give a damn. You care about her, and that's all a kid really needs is a mum that cares." Abby didn't miss the needful tone in his voice.

"Yeah. I guess you're right. I just couldn't let Lester send her off."

"What's her name? Her real mum died before she told anyone. I guess that means you get to name her."

Abby looked down at the little one. "I've never thought about naming a child."

"Are you taking suggestions?" Connor asked shyly.

"What's your idea?"

"Madeline. We could call her Maddy."

"Is that from Star Trek?" Abby prepared to tease him and was surprised when he shook his head in the negative. "No. It was my sisters name." Connor whispered.

"Sister? What happened?" Connor had never ever mentioned a sister to her. But to be fair she had never mentioned her brother to him until Jack blew into town.

"Car crash. She was six. I was nine. She slipped out of her seat belt and went out the window. The car rolled on her." The dark haired man looked as his hands as he explained quietly. "My dad never recovered either. He drank himself to death a year later and mum was left with just me."

"Madeline is a beautiful name." Abby told him firmly. "Maddy."

Together they gave little Madeline a sponge bath, changed her nappy again and then Connor held her, sitting on Abby's bed while she cleaned out her top dresser drawer to use as a crib for tonight.

Rex followed them in and was perched on the headboard checking out Madeline. Intently, they watched each other. Red trilled curiously and inched closer. "How are we going to convince him that she's not a toy?"

"I have no idea. I'll made sure he's not in here when we're sleeping. Beyond that I think he'll get used to her then ignore her. He only bothers us when he wants to play or something to eat."

Connor tried not to pay attention to the lacy underwear that was being shifted into other drawers. Abby noticed him trying not to pay attention. "How is she?"

"Awake." Connor laid the baby down on Abby's bed. The little girl immediately started to push herself up a little bit and floundered around. "She's an active little mite."

Abby came over and sat down by Connor after she'd finished lining the drawer with towels. "What do you think I ought to do now?" The baby gurgled to herself and grinned like a maniac, completely unaware of how intently she was being observed.

"Do you mean, set up a college fund for her or how are we going to get through the next few weeks?" Connor replied with his trademark dimple grin.

"Yeah." Ruefully, Abby answered him. Connor laughed and patted her on the back. "We survived the dinosaurs. I think we can survive this. Now, I think you ought to watch the baby and I'll make us some supper. How does that sound?"

"Wonderful." She said gratefully.

Connor had brought the baby book upstairs with them and Abby took the chance to flip it open to the two month old section. At one point Maddy rolled over and was amazed at the new view of the world. Abby laughed at the baby's expression, she was _**so**_ pleased with herself.

Downstairs Connor was trying to focus on cooking chicken in a pan for the chicken alfredo he had planned. His emotions were in a tizzy. He always wanted kids and he adored Abby. Once he had even told her that he loved her but then he had chickened out and pretended not to have said it.

He really regretted that but she had let him get away with it, so what did that say about how she felt about him? He derailed that train of thought and brought his attention back to dinner, for about thirty seconds before he continued to ponder the various blunders he had made. Still, he said he loved her! That had to count for something? Didn't it? Even if he had wussed out at a crucial moment.

He hadn't had the guts to bring it up again and push the issue. She seemed content to let things continue on the way they were now and he didn't want to upset the apple cart. It was nice enough that she evicted Jack when they returned from the Cretaceous and let him move back. He didn't want to push his luck.

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They didn't have a high chair, and she couldn't sit up on her own anyway so Abby laid a blanket on the ground and piled pillows around it so Madeline couldn't escape. It was so odd, they both kept glancing over at the baby that was laying on the floor, after a few minutes she fell asleep there. A sleeping baby was just as nerve wracking as an awake baby.

Connor cleaned up the kitchen while Abby made a list of everything they still needed to get, it seemed endless, and expensive. Fortunately the ARC paid well. The baby slept nearly two hours with them tiptoeing around the flat keeping the TV nearly silent before waking up crying for food and a clean nappy.

Abby picked her up, cooing at her while Connor made a bottle up. She glanced over at him carefully measuring out the formula while she was changing Maddy. He looked so serious mixing up a bottle, like it was his own daughter he was making it for. Rex was on the counter chirping encouragement to him. She was too far away to hear the conversation they were having but it must have been funny because suddenly Connor smiled and his whole face lit up.

"Will you feed her while I take a shower?" Abby asked him, "I should have done it while she was sleeping, sorry."

"Sure, we get along. Come here baby..." Connor took the child and stopped her fussing with the bottle. "Take your time."

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When Abby came back dressed in her night gown she found Connor reading a comic book to Madeline. She stood out of sight and listened to him narrate the adventures of wolverine and his merry band for a few minutes before moving into sight.

"Your turn. Are you sure that's an appropriate bedtime story?"

"The X-men are nothing but good clean wholesome fun." He shut the book so Abby didn't see the graphic animation of an epic battle between good and evil. There may have been a little dismemberment, but only of the bad guys. "She's sleepy again. I think she'll doze off in a bit. This parenting stuff isn't so hard."

"We've had a successful eight hours. I think it's too soon to declare it's not that bad yet." Abby told him and took in the baby's blinking eyes. "I'll take her upstairs and we'll see if she sleeps through the night. The book said some babies will by this point."

"Wake me up if you need something." Connor grinned at her again. She never would have guessed having a baby in the house would make him so happy. "Thanks Connor, oh, Lester wanted me to ask if you wanted to be on her birth certificate that he's faking up. He was joking, I think, but if something happened to me then you'd have a legal right to her. You don't have to decide tonight. It's a really big decision-"

"I'd love to be her father." Connor announced before Abby could even finish telling him he didn't have to. "She adorable, and she's only got us. Her real mum died before lunch today. I can't imagine just turning her out."

"Are you sure? You don't have to just because I did."

"Abby, you're not the only one that doesn't want to see her taken into Social Services. If stepping up and taking a bit of responsibility officially can keep that from happening, I'll do it." Connor got up off the couch and pulled Abby into a loose hug, "and realistically, I live here. I'm going to help you raise her. It might as well be official."

Someone just looking in the window might suppose they were seeing a tender moment between a young family. In a way, that's exactly what it was.

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Connor woke up disoriented, to a weird noise. After a moment he placed it as a baby crying downstairs. He staggered up in his boxers and headed down the stairs to see if Abby needed help. On the way out he glanced at his watch. It was nearly three in the morning.

"Abby? How's it going?" He called out as he staggered into the living room. She had the light off and was walking back and forth. "I don't know what she wants. She had a bottle and instead of going back to sleep she's just crying." Connor could hear the stress in Abby's voice.

"Let me walk her for a bit." He took the crying baby off Abby and jostled her gently. Abby collapsed on the couch and watched Connor with tired eyes. "Hey now, hey now, what's the matter? Mummy is tired." Madeline was unmoved, and determined in her wailing. Connor moved her to his shoulder and patted her back. A second later he regretted that as the baby made a burping sound and he felt something wet and hot hit his bare shoulder and run down his back.

"Uh Abby? Some assistance here?" On the upside the crying stopped as soon as the spitting up happened.

Abby dragged herself up and got a warm washcloth. It was almost surreal, the two of them in the dark and all she could see of Connor was his silhouette. He had a very nice silhouette she noted idly as she wiped off Connor's shoulder and where the baby spit-up had dribbled down his back. She was so close she couldn't help but to notice the well defined muscles on his back but in her sleepy state she didn't really pay attention.

It didn't register that she was running the warm washcloth a bare inch above where his boxers started until she heard his sharp intake of breath and it suddenly snapped into focus that the gawky, socially inept college student had been washed away by the last few years and replaced by a man that was brilliant, sweet, handsome, and generous enough to volunteer to raise a stray child that Abby had brought home.

Abby jumped away like she had been burned. Connor stayed where he was, still rocking the baby gently and he kept his eyes closed, like he couldn't bear to see the rejection in her face. If he had looked, that wasn't what he would have seen.

"Sorry," She stuttered out. "Yeah, It's alright." He told her softly. "How long have you been up?"

"She got me up about eleven, for a dry nappy and a bottle, then just a few minutes ago." Abby tried to move past the weird energy that moved in. It wasn't happening. "I'll stay up with her, you try to get some sleep before work." Connor still didn't look at Abby.

"Thanks. Here's the bottle. She only had half of it." Gratefully Abby handed Connor a towel for his shoulder before retreating, and that was the only word for it, back to her bedroom.

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A/N: If you liked it...or not...please leave me a review. Even a few words really inspires me to write more.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N :** Wow! Thank you all for the lovely reviews. does happy dance I'm so so thrilled. Trude, you had an excellent point. I meant to go one way with this story and then I went another way entirely and it **was** confusing. I went back and edited Chapter 1 slightly to reflect my new reality. If only I could do that so easily in real life...don't worry, the only changes I made was taking out references to the end of Series 4.

Chapter 2

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In the morning Abby woke up tired, and babyless. Connor had evidently kept her in his room for the rest of the night. The door was open to his room and Abby stood in the doorway and watched them sleep. Connor had done the same as she had and cleaned out a dresser drawer to act as a makeshift crib.

She ventured in and looked down at the sleeping baby. Abby watched her twitch in her sleep for a minute before turning to Connor. He looked back at her, awake. "Morning." She whispered, sliding in close and resolutely ignoring the fact that she was laying on his bed, "How was the night?"

Connor yawned and stretched before answering her, she tried not to notice how his muscles rippled. 'Down girl,' she told herself sternly.

"Alright," he yawned, "She fell asleep again about four. Going by yesterday I think she'll wake up around seven. When does sleeping through the night happen again?"

"According to everyone at the ARC, between before now and six months."

"Oh, we'll have to make up a roster then. You take the early shift and I'll take the late one." He joke with her as he slid out of bed. At some point he'd slipped a pair of Darth Vader pajama pants on instead of being clad only in boxers.

They went on with their normal morning routine, with one ear cocked towards Connor's room when she woke up. There was no missing it. Maddy first thing in the morning sounded like an air raid siren. Abby went to get her and Connor started mixing up the bottle without a word being spoken between them.

Connor discovered that Maddy would suck on a pacifier and so they dressed her in the little one piece baby suit that truthfully, was a bit large. Connor had bought it on impulse the night before because it had a cartoon Princess Leia on it and then they went to work.

Neither one of them had a reason to spend any time around the day-care before. They were making up for lost time now. Connor and Abby met all three of the day care workers and discovered that Maddy would be the youngest baby there by about a year. There was almost fifteen little kids, from between sixteen months and four years old in the daycare suite.

Nervously, they filled out the contact information card and read the rules. No dropping her off if she was sick and they had to get her on a vaccination schedule as soon as possible. Abby passed over the little bag she had packed with the formula, nappies, wipes, diaper rash ointment, pacifier and extra baby clothes and they both left, slowly.

"She'll be fine!" Ashley, the youngest woman called to them, "Don't worry."

They didn't say anything until they got in the elevator. "Do you feel as nervous leaving her as I do?" Connor asked quickly as soon as the doors slid shut. "Yeah." Abby confessed. It didn't get easier when they got downstairs to the main area. "How was the first night?" Jess asked them immediately when they appeared.

"Good." Connor took over, "She only woke up a few times. Easy-peasy."

Jess grinned. "Lester wants to see you both, but he wanted to talk to Connor first."

"That's odd. I'll be in the menagerie." Abby ducked out to try and calm some of the butterflies that appeared in her stomach. Surely he hadn't changed his mind? Connor watched her go and then glanced over at Lester's office. He could see the man watching them through the window. Connor had a private theory that Lester loved his fishbowl office just so he could see what everyone else was doing. After all, nobody else would be rude enough to just sit and watch him working so it was really a one way street of nosiness.

"Wish me luck Jess." Connor requested before obediently heading over.

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"Good morning Connor." Lester greeted him, "How was it with an infant in the house?"

Connor plopped down in a chair without being invited. "Not so bad. She's a cute little thing. She got Abby up once and me up once. I don't know what people make such a fuss about."

Lester, father of two little girls, one of whom was fussy and colicky for nearly the first year, marveled at his optimism. "Glad to hear it was such a breeze. I need to talk to you seriously about her. Did Abby ask you about her birth certificate?"

"Yeah, she said you wanted to put me on it?"

"I wasn't serious, at the time but it would make life easier if I could fill out the paperwork with two parents. If I put you down it would be nearly impossible to change things later if you decided you didn't want that much responsibility." Lester was dead serious.

Connor was just as serious. "Put me down."

"Are you sure? You're not just doing this to please Abby? What are your reasons?"

The younger man thought about the revelations he had while he was sitting on the couch at three in the morning gently rocking a baby. "I can't let her go into care."

Lester sighed, "If this is about Abby's past-"

"It's not." He objected, "It's about Madeline's future. She's got one with Abby and I. She hasn't got one with some nameless, faceless foster family." Connor spoke from the heart, earnestly and fervently. "I'm not doing this to please Abby. I'm don't know why I'm doing it really, except doing anything else...I can't contemplate walking away from Madeline."

His boss twitched. He had read all of Connor's files also. "You named her Madeline?"

"It was my sisters name." Connor told him absently, not thinking then that Lester would have no reason to react to the name, or to even know he had a sister, given how young he'd been when she died. "Madeline Sarah, with Abby's middle name."

Lester sighed, "All right then. I'll put you down. Go find Abby and come back here will you?"

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Ten minutes later they were treated to James Lester's lecture on child rearing. It was not a conversation they had ever expected to have with him. One of the many things he told them was to be flexible, babies and children went by their own schedules, she would sleep through the night when she was ready, she would sit up when she was ready and she would walk and talk when she was good and ready. They couldn't rush her, they couldn't hurry her along, all they could do was go with it.

It was not something that they ever expected to hear from their stodgy boss. They were still marveling at how their world was changing.

Later that day they were surprised to be summoned to his office again. He presented them with an impressive stack of paperwork on Madeline Sarah Maitland Temple. "As you can see, she's adopted from a small orphanage in Siberia-"

"Siberia?" Connor was incredulous, "That's _**so**_ bad sci-fi character history."

Lester raised an eyebrow, "Next time, I'll hack all the files and you can generate all the paperwork."

"Forget I said anything." Connor backpedaled. There was an art to forging documents and for some reason Lester was incredibly talented or had lots of training at it.

"Why's it Maitland Temple? Why not Temple Maitland?" Abby questioned him with narrowed eyes. "I wanted her first."

"I went alphabetically." Lester lied smoothly before continuing his explanation of Maddy's official history. "You picked her up from the airport a few days ago, there was a flight from Russia that you'll be hacking into the flight manifest and adding her to, Connor, and her official birthday is April 1. Sign here, here and here."

"April Fool's day?" Abby questioned him as she signed what looked like perfectly legitimate adoption certificates and paperwork.

Lester was a little proud of himself, "It fit. It makes her eleven weeks old instead of ten, but a week one way or the other doesn't really matter."

"Anything for a laugh right?" Connor joked and watched Abby sign her life away. A minute later it was his turn. He signed 'Connor Temple' with his neatest handwriting and felt a weird protective twinge when he saw his name next to Abby's on the adoption degree that was dated four days ago.

"Right Connor, Abby. There doesn't seem to be an anomaly today so you two can leave early, just this once. Keep your phones on you, I expect you back here immediately if we call." Lester couldn't let them think he was getting too soft. Those two had no idea what they were in for but he couldn't help himself, "Congratulations, it's a girl."

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They took the chance to duck out to the store without the baby. Abby knew there was tons of stuff for sale for babies, but she had never really realized how overwhelming it was to be the person that had to pick through it all.

"You weren't kidding about information overload." Abby said drying as they navigated the baby store. "I don't know how you got in and out of here so fast last night." There was a whole aisle of just diaper bags!

"I don't either." Connor was distracted by a display of impossibly tiny T-shirts with Jedi Knights on them. "Abby look, it's the whole Jedi Academy! They've even got Tikiri!"

"Those are too big, see the T? That means toddlers. She'd swim in that." Connor pouted at her and picked out a shirt anyway. "She can grow into it." Abby rolled her eyes but she got just as excited at a completely adorable package of bibs. They lingered and looked at everything. It wasn't until it was nearly their regular time to get off work that they finally wrapped up their shopping and headed back to the ARC to pick up their daughter.

Connor caught her hand out in the parking lot. "Abby, we have a daughter together."

"Yeah? It's a bit shocking isn't it?"

He quirked a smile at her, "Yeah. About that crib...I was thinking...what if I stayed in your room?"

That question deserved both eyebrows arched. "What?"

"It would be easier, until she's sleeping through the night if we're in the same room, that's all." Connor tried to explain quickly. Abby narrowed her eyes at him and remembered how he had half-blackmailed his way into living with her. This had the same odor.

"You're sure you don't just want to sleep in the same bed with me?"

He scoffed, "We'd hardly be getting any sleep. I was just thinking it'd be easier to take turns getting up with her if we were in the same room, that's all." Connor looked so hopeful that she would just agree that she couldn't just slap him down out of hand. "I'll think about it," she compromised. "Now we have to go get our daughter."

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It felt very odd picking up an infant from daycare but millions of people had done it before them and doubtless would do it again. Maddy hadn't changed her mind on car seats. She arched her back and protested when they fastened her in.

Connor laughed at her, she looked so annoyed at them for putting her back in the hated seat. They got back to the house and in a repeat of yesterday, Maddy went to sleep in the car and stayed that way for nearly an hour. Connor unfastening the car seat and bringing her in didn't even cause her to stir. This time they waited until she woke up on her own to feed her. They were learning.

Something was really bothering Abby. Connor had to have known about her sordid past for years and he had never even hinted at him. After dinner, she couldn't contain herself any longer. "Connor, why didn't you tell me you knew?"

He looked completely surprised. "Knew about what?"

"Me. Social Services, all the therapy they made me go to, being imprisoned because they wouldn't just leave me alone." Once she started talking about it she couldn't stop. "You peeked at my ARC file. Why didn't you ever let on that you knew?" Abby demanded exasperated at him.

Connor realized what countless men before him had realized. He was in trouble for no obvious reason. He thought for a second and carefully answered, "Abby I have no idea what you're talking about. I read your file to find out when your birthday was. Nothing about that is in there." He hesitated, morbidly curious, "What happened to you?"

The blonde woman was absolutely gobsmacked. "Lester knew about my childhood...I assumed it was in my ARC file."

Something that had been pricking Connor's mind came up, "He knew about my sister also and I know that's not in my file. Maybe he found out that stuff because of our security clearance?" Connor speculated aloud while he helped her load the dishwasher.

Abby turned to him, "Can you find out?"

He grinned at her, "If it's on his computer I can."

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Five minutes later found all three of them on the couch. Connor had his souped up laptop fired up and he was past the ARC's firewall in seconds. Abby held the baby and watched him work.

Lester had put some of his own security on his computer but Connor was a genus, in a pathetically short period of time they were in and looking at Lester's desktop.

Personnel...Abby Maitland.

Connor clicked on it. It opened up several documents, a background check, work history, social services...Connor opened it before Abby could tell him not to. It opened to the last place it had been when it was read last, the end. He read the last paragraph aloud.

"Mrs. Maitland is being released from Juvenile Detention early due to passing her final exams. She has expressed an interest in animals and has enrolled in college with the intent to become a Veterinary Assistant. She'll be moved from J.D. to her dorm on Monday. The emancipation paperwork has already been filed, see appendix D."

Connor was shocked, "Abby, why were you in prison?" he asked.

She jostled the baby a bit before answering with the strict truth, "I ran away, a lot. They finally said that they had a responsibility to be sure I finished school so they locked me up with criminals. I shared a cell with two prostitutes, a crazy violent girl that had stabbed her grandmother and a shoplifter for almost a year."

"Oh wow." Suddenly her insistence on her space and things being neat made a lot more sense. "I can see how that would be stressful."

"Yeah...stressful. I got through it. Will you change her?" She passed the baby to him, "I have to go to the loo."

"Okay." Connor agreed quickly. Abby bounced up and headed to the bathroom. Connor looked down at Madeline. "In just a moment baby." He started reading from the top of the extensive file. He only read a moment before a few key words leap out at him. Appalled, he closed the file and tried hard to pretend he was only changing a wet nappy when she returned.

His poker face sucked. She knew him better than anyone in the world.

"Connor! Why did you read it?" Abby was pissed and over the years the sweet man had tried really hard to avoid pissing her off. She had succeeded in teaching him a bit about girls. Step one, apologize immediately.

"I'm sorry Abbs, I couldn't resist, I closed it when I realized how personal it was!" Connor tried to save himself. He didn't know it, but standing over an infant he had just finished changing was scoring him some pity points.

He looked so pathetic, and desperate to be forgiven for invading her privacy that she sighed and felt her anger downshift into just annoyance. "It was personal, but they made it ten times worse." She could see that Connor was getting pretty confused. She was going to have to explain, again.

"I'll tell you everything but you have to let me finish before you start asking questions." Abby bargained with him. "You don't have to tell me anything." Connor said immediately, "Not if you don't want too."

"Not this again! I forbid you from pitying me." Abby switched back to anger again and took a deep breath to calm herself down. "Seriously Connor, do not pity me."

"Okay, fine. No pity." He shut his mouth with a snap. Madeline was laying in his arms, giving him that unblinking baby stare as she focused on his face. He glanced down at her for a second. "Let's at least sit down."

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A/N: Moving right along then... Please review if you were entertained.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Primeval

Authors Note: I wanted to give Abby a past that would lead her to refusing to let an infant go into foster care, but wouldn't make her different from the strong, confident character we all know and love. This is the best I could do. This isn't gory and graphic but I'm making the next chapter a T just to be safe.

Thank you all my reviewers! This means you Trude, Fiona Bee, Maddi, Fairepeacock, iEvenstarEstel, SveaR, Cehsja and dorito! You inspire me to keep going ;)

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Abby plopped down on the couch and started right in. "Jack and I got taken into care when I was nine. I went through a bunch of foster homes and group homes. Sometimes Jack and I would be together, sometimes we wouldn't. There wasn't anything I could do about anything. So I became very independent," she waved her hands about to emphasis her point, "they said I was wild, or being a teenager or going through a phase or some shit like that."

Obediently, Connor kept his mouth shut and let her continue.

"So, when I was twelve I got a boyfriend. He lived down the row. I thought I was perfectly normal to have a boyfriend. I'd had other boyfriends before but I always got moved away from them, sent to a different school or whatnot." She took a deep breath, "The only problem was that Jasper was nineteen."

She was aware of Connor's eyes bugging out but she'd explained this so often it didn't make her hesitate. "I'll admit now that I was a bit young to be making decisions like when to start having sex-"

Connor couldn't help it, "You were twelve! He-"

"Was my boyfriend. Shut up Connor and let me finish. It was my decision, not his, he didn't pressure me or molest me like they said. I wanted to go all the way." Abby sighed at how naive she was, "Of course, we got caught, he got charged as a child molester but he didn't do much jail time because I told anyone who would listen he didn't molest me, he was my boyfriend and that's what girls did with their boyfriends. The only problem was that no one would listen."

Abby looked at him then and caught him studying Maddy, like he couldn't stand to face her after this revelation. He looked so sweet looking at the baby, and incredibly nervous. She went on with the rest of it, there was no going back now. If he thought she was a slut, then, well, there wasn't anything she could really do about it.

"Social services has a procedure they follow in what they term, 'molestation' and I got sucked into the system even further. They made me go through a medical exam which was absolutely horrible, they finally had to sedate me because I wasn't letting all of them get a gander under my jeans."

Connor could just picture a twelve year old Abby trying to fight off doctors and nurses and his heart broke a little for her. She continued on.

"They said he'd brainwashed me and that's why I wouldn't cooperate with them." She could still see their faces in her mind, telling her that they were just there to help her and she could trust them. They lied, but she had learned the important lesson about trust. The list of people she trusted as an adult was terribly short. Connor... and to a lessor extant some of the other people from the ARC. Abby dragged her attention back to her story.

"Then they made me go to counseling and they don't do it any more but then it was popular to put a bunch of girls in a room and encourage them all to relate their trauma." She started to pick at a piece of lint on her jeans. "That did something inside me, I'd have to sit there and listen to all these girls about my age talk about what their dad or uncle or mum's boyfriend had done to them and when it was my turn I'd just refuse to talk because for me...it wasn't like that."

Abby sighed deeply, "That just made it worse, the more I had insisted I wasn't abused the more they would insist that I had been and I was just in denial. We went around and around, I don't know how many therapists they made me see. Finally I just started running away to get away from it. My caseworker took that as a sign of my repressed abuse was making me act out. She finally locked me in Juvie until I finished school. I got done with two years in eight months." Abby stated a little proudly, "I started college a year early."

"Wow Abby, that's wonderful." Connor tried to find the bright side, "Can I ask a question?"

Abby reached out and let Maddy grab her finger, "Yes, you can ask a question."

"It was totally your decision to have sex?" Connor wanted complete clarification.

She reached out with her other hand and rested her hand on his cheek. "Yes. It was completely my decision. I was too young to be making that type of decision but I didn't have anyone to look out for me. That's why I couldn't let Madeline go into the system."

"Okay then. Well. That's quite a bit better than what I was expecting." Connor told her frankly, with his trademark grin, but then it faded a little, "but, you were twelve, he had to have...well...hurt you." He blushed furiously and went back to staring at the baby.

It took Abby a second to figure out what exactly he was hinting at then she laughed, "No Conn, he was tiny. It was pretty sad actually."

He perked up, "Oh, really? That's good then. I mean, well-"

Abby leaned over and meant to kiss him on the cheek, just a little friendly peck, but he chose that exact moment to look up again and her lips landed on square on his. He was surprised, but not for long. Before she could pull back he was leaning into her, and running his free hand in her hair to gently hold her close. She didn't mean to, but she found herself kissing him back just as passionately as he was kissing her.

She leaned over the baby and wrapped both arms around his neck, he dropped his hand and slid it around her waist to try and pull her closer in reflex, but there wasn't room. Eventually they broke apart to breath. They were both panting and Connor was thanking all the supreme beings in the universe he had brushed his teeth that morning.

"Wow." Abby said softly, Connor echoed her, "Wow." The baby said, "Waaaaahhhh," and she wasn't pleased about being pinned between them, even though they weren't actually pressing on her. Abby backed off a little and Connor relaxed his hold on her waist, but he left his hand resting on her hip.

"So...Can I kiss you again?" He asked in a rush. Abby laughed again as the awkward tension from the night before didn't surface at all. Instead, she only had Connor's handsome face.

"If you like. But we should wait for her to go to sleep again." That wasn't happening anytime soon. Maddy was getting wound up. Sid and Nancy galloped into the living room, attracted to the squalling baby. They had been intensely curious about her when she was crying but Abby and Connor didn't let them get too close. They were going to have hell when she started crawling and walking.

Connor stood up and started walking with her, "I think we should be getting a rocking chair or a swing or something." He commented as she quieted almost immediately as either the new view or the movement soothed her. "She gets bored in one place.

"A rocking chair would be nice. Maybe we could go by Tiny Tots tomorrow after work. I'll bring a thermos with us. We can put hot water in it when we leave work and make a bottle at the store after she wakes up."

Connor grinned at her, "Abby that's brilliant." She returned his smile and didn't tell him that the daycare lady had given her that tip. Brilliant was brilliant.

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The next day they had a creature incursion, nasty slimy giant slug creatures that wouldn't have left any evidence in the fossil record. They were gross and Connor managed to fall on one of them while they were herding them back through the anomaly. Becker was still laughing about it.

He was showering in the locker room while Abby retrieved the baby. Lester called her right after she got Maddy from the nursery. His terse demand to come by his office before leaving made her roll her eyes at the phone. "Come on Maddy, let's go see uncle Lester."

She shifted the baby to her other arm and headed back downstairs. Abby spotted Becker flirting with Jess in the form of elaborately reenacting when Connor fell on his ass in a pile of giant slimy slugs that turned out to be very cuddly when someone was on their level and couldn't get up. Jess was laughing with one hand over her mouth as he waved his arms around. He stopped when he noticed Abby walking into the main room.

Becker looked guilty for a brief instant and Abby suddenly had a wonderful idea. "Just the people I wanted to see. Watch her for me, will you? Lester wants to see me." Before he could protest Abby had deposited the baby in the startled man's arms and swept away up the stairs to the sound of Jess's giggling.

"Yes? You wanted to see me?" Abby said by way of introduction, his door wasn't even shut. Lester barely looked up from the file he was working on. "I wanted to give you something, it's more for Madeline when she's older." He passed a photograph across the desk. Abby looked at it for a moment before recognizing her. "It's her real mother."

"Yes. I had the funeral parlor clean her up and take that before she was cremated. I thought that her daughter would like to see what she looked like." Lester tried and failed to keep emotion out of his voice. Pretending to be focused on paperwork wasn't fooling anybody so he gave it up and looked at Abby.

"That's sweet of you. I didn't even think about it." She said numbly as she studied the photo of the young woman. She looked a bit like Abby's grandmother, with high cheekbones and very fair complexion. Whoever had styled her body for the photo had arranged her hair around her face like a bright red halo on the pillow. She was beautiful and looked as if she was only sleeping. Lester kept talking to cover the awkwardness.

"Quite all right. That's why I make the big bucks. The medical examiner estimates that she wasn't more than fifteen years old. Analysis of her clothes and diet estimates that she was from about 700 A.D. somewhere along the coast of Scotland. Naturally, records are very sketchy from that period but if she was right and everyone else in her village/farm was killed then even if the vikings didn't run the baby through, she would have died of exposure before anyone found her."

Abby shivered, "So the time line is safe then?"

He shrugged, "As far as we know."

The sound of a baby crying drew their attention, they both looked out the glass onto the operations floor. Madeline had gotten tired of being handled like a large hand grenade and she was letting Captain Becker know it. Jess took her away from him and rocked her, to no avail.

"I'd better get back down there." Abby excused herself. She was halfway down the ramp when Connor was drawn into the room by the squalling. "Here," Jess said quickly and passed her over. "Becker upset her."

The dark haired soldier was insulted, "I did not. She started wailing all on her own." He tried to defend himself to the womenfolk. Connor came to his defense, "Sometimes she just likes to be noisy." This was despite the fact as soon as Connor had her she quit crying. "Yeah!" Becker agreed.

Connor spotted the photo in Abby's hand, "What's that?"

Abby glanced down at it again, "It's her real mother." She passed the picture around to the three of them. "Lester had it taken, he thought she might want it when she's older."

Jess was holding it and scrutinizing it closely, "She was gorgeous." Becker would have agreed with that assessment if it didn't make him look like a lecherous old man. Instead he said, "You're going to have hell with the boys when she's older."

Connor looked insulted. "She's not allowed around boys until she's thirty."

"That's a bit harsh, I was thinking more like sixteen." Abby and Connor jokingly bickered back and forth as they left. They went to the baby store, Tiny Tot's, and picked out a swing. They parked Maddy in all the floor models and bought the one she seemed to like best. She seemed to like the shopping trip. Connor managed to put more star wars themed items in the cart that Abby pretended to ignore.

That evening Connor decided to bring up a subject he had raised a few days before. "So...Abby...about us staying in the same room..." She looked up from her laptop and gave him a very skeptical look, "I'm not picky, we can all sleep in my room." He offered selflessly.

Abby sighed theatrically, "I supposed, in the interest of convenience, as long as she's waking up two or three times a night, we could all stay in the same room. But there's got to be some guidelines."

He grinned like Rex with a fresh mango. "Anything you want."

"You'd have to stay on your side of the bed. No wandering hands."

Connor shook his head firmly, "Absolutely not." He came over and started to rub her shoulders, "We wouldn't want to move too fast...I mean, two kisses in three years, that positively hasty by some standards." Abby laughed and wasn't surprised at all when he bend down to kiss her again.

"Oooh, Spiderman kiss." She whispered. "What?" He pretended to be surprised. "You said to wait until she was asleep." They both glanced over at the new swing that was set up in the middle of the room. Madeline was sleeping like, well, a baby. Rex was laying along the top with his tail hanging down. He seemed to enjoy the slight swaying of the swing. Abby made a mental note to cover the top with heavy canvas or something that he could dig his claws into.

Connor sat down beside her and tugged her towards his side. "Abby, I love you." She leaned against him and sighed, "I know." His whole face lit up, "Really?"

"Yeah. I love you too, and I don't want to mess us up. Can we move slowly on this?" She asked him a little desperately. He understood that she needed time to adjust, "Yeah, we've been living together for a few years, got a baby now, soon we'll work our way up to two kisses every quarter."

Abby laughed again, "I don't mean that slowly, just, lets ease into things. I'm saying I don't want to skip to the end right away, right?"

"I kinda fancy some endings." Connor pouted, still with his arms around her, "Like when Han Solo kisses Princess Leia right before Boba Fett freezes him in carbonite?" She giggled, "So you're about to be frozen and delivered to a intergalactic crime boss?"

"Well, not precisely. It was terribly romantic, she finally says I love you, he says I know-"

"I just said that!" Abby exclaimed in surprise.

"It was very sweet of you to quote Star Wars during a romantic moment." She looked up at him, completely aware of how he had oh so casually slid his arms around her. His eyes twinkled at her and he was smiling, like he was wondering just how much he could get away with now.

"Just kiss me again." She requested softly. He happily complied.

This time he broke it off, "If you want to take things slow," He panted, "We'd better stop making out now." He could feel her heart racing under his hand. "Yeah," she agreed, somehow she had ended up nearly laying on top of him on the couch, "I think you're right." Damn but he felt good under her, she thought, having no idea that his current thoughts mirrored hers exactly.

"Come on, we've got to wake her up, feed her and put her back down before it gets too late." Connor told Abby as they shifted apart. She had a different idea, "What if we just left her asleep? It's almost nine. We could see what happens."

"All right. We'll see what happens."

She didn't stir as Abby gently lifted her out and carried her upstairs to her crib. "Which half is your half?" Connor whispered. "That one." Abby waved at the far side of the bed. Actually, it was the middle half, but that wasn't going to fly right now. Connor commenced shucking his clothes off. She tried to be subtle about checking him out clad only in boxers while he climbed into bed. He had a nice ass.

Abby took the time to take a shower and give Connor time to get settled in. He had gotten cleaned up right after they got home so hopefully he'd be asleep when she got out of the shower. Everyone seemed to be sleeping peacefully when she returned. She checked the baby, an action that was already second nature before getting into bed. The tank top and underwear she was wearing made her feel decidedly overdressed for bed but it was the least she could wear and be decent.

Madeline was still sleeping peacefully on her back, with her arms flung up over her head. She was adorable, even with her bald head.

Abby settled in on her side, Connor was laying in a mirror of Madeline, with his arms underneath his pillow. He cracked an eye open and admired her slender form. She caught him watching. "Good night Connor."

"Good night Abby. I love you."

"I love you too."

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They only slept until eleven, when their air raid siren went off. Connor was right, it went faster with them both in the same room. She changed the baby while Connor made the bottle. Abby settled back into bed and fed Maddy. "It's more relaxing laying in bed doing this than sitting on the couch." She commented quietly.

Connor had propped himself up on one side and was watching her. "You're beautiful."

She blushed. "It's your turn next."

"I'm sure I won't be as gorgeous at it as you." He rumbled as he laid back down in the bed. "This mattress is really soft, is it a pillow top?" Abby rolled her eyes at him. "It's comfy." He tried in vain to defend himself. "Marry me."

"Connor!"

"Was that not taking it slow?"

"NO!"

"Sorry." He wasn't repentant at all and she knew it.

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A few hours later it was his turn to stay up with the baby while she ate. She ate slowly and sometimes Connor had to jostle her to keep her awake and sucking on the bottle. Abby was right, it was more relaxing to lay in bed during these middle of the night feedings then to sit on the couch.

Abby had dropped off again after making him a fresh bottle. He took the chance to study her while she was sleeping. He thought she was adorable, but he'd thought that from the moment he met her. He noted interestedly that she snored a little. He could live with that. He realized with a complete shock that he was happy. He had his own little family to look after and it wasn't just comprised of reptiles.

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In the morning Abby became aware of consciousness slowly, she was warm and wrapped in a something cozy. After a few seconds she realized it was Connor, spooning up against her with one arm flung over her side. They were pressed together firmly, between skin and blankets she was totally comfortable.

"Morning," he whispered in her ear. "Morning." She replied with a yawn and stretch.

"Before you say anything, I didn't violate the very firm my-side-your-side rule." He continued on resolutely.

"What?" Abby lifted her head up slightly and looked around. She was solidly on his side of the bed. "I think this means unconsciously, you want me." He smirked.

"I do want you." She told him, still too comfortable to move away. "I just want to enjoy dating for a while."

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A/N: Life isn't all sunshine and kittens for our intrepid heros! In the next chapter they get to face the scariest monster of all. A Bureaucrat With A Firm Expectation Of What Is Right And Proper With The Law.


	4. Chapter 4

Foundling - Chapter 4

Thank you so much everyone that reviewed this story! It really motivated me to get this chapter out quickish. I know, I know, it's not exactly next day service but it's within the same week at least;)

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They should have known the peace and quiet wouldn't last. Almost four months to the day from when they got Madeline they were called into Lester's office again. Nothing had happened lately, that either of them could think of, that would deserve a visit into the bosses office.

"We've got a serious problem." He started without a preamble. "The new minister wants a full review into Madeline."

Taken off guard, the young couple exclaimed, "What? Why?"

Lester pursed his lips and answered the why, "She came up through social services, then transferred into national secrets and classified work. She was going through the old files and discovered that I just said you could keep a human baby." He was well aware of all the things he hadn't said they could keep that they just kept anyway. He had learned not to ask questions he didn't want to officially know the answers to. "She wants to know who you are, why you're qualified to raise a child, all that bunk."

Abby felt a pit settle in her stomach. "What's her name?"

"Naomi Truman." Lester watched her closely. "Do you know her?"

She exhaled heavily, "Haven't heard of her before. What specifically does she want?"

"Home visits, interviews, the whole nine yards, she basically wants you to jump through all the hoops everyone else has to hop through to get a baby. She mentioned that there are thousands of fully qualified families waiting on a child and I overstepped my bounds letting you skip to the head of the line."

"She's not going to take her away from us!" Abby declared. "Yeah! She's our daughter." Connor chimed in, getting more and more upset.

"I'm going to do everything in my power to prevent that." Lester reassured them. "I only just found out. They're holding the caseworker at the front gate now. Thank heavens this is a classified facility and just anybody can't wander in. It's a woman named Trudy Sterling, she was trying to do a surprise workplace interview."

"Does she know where Madeline actually came from?"

"No. All she knows is that all the regular waiting periods and interviews were waived for you for some reason. I blame myself," he said regretfully, "I should have forged a lot more documents."

Connor spoke up, "We'll go talk to the caseworker, we'll tell her whatever she wants to hear and then she'll leave us alone, right?" He was looking for some positive affirmation. Lester, who had been a bureaucrat nearly his whole adult life and had witnessed some positively gargantuan bouts of officially sanctioned stupidity wasn't going to reassure him it would be alright.

Abby, who had seen the system from the other side, didn't even kid herself. If _they_, the nameless faceless _they_, could take Madeline away and destroy all of their lives, _they_ would.

"I can't send her away." Lester replied, "Becker's men are holding her at the gate."

"We'll go talk to her, but we'll leave Madeline in here. She can't take her if she can't get her." Connor said with impeccable logic. "We have to Abby, she's not going to go away."

"Fine. We'll talk to her." She grudgingly agreed.

"Get your stories straight." Lester told them sharply. "You decided to adopt a baby from small Siberian orphanage. You found it on the internet. You filled the paperwork out yourselves and mailed it off. They approved you and you paid for her flight and for the nurse who brought her here. You didn't think home-studies and references were needed for foreign adoptions. Don't get specific, claim you can't really remember, you were just so excited about it."

"Right." Connor shook his head eagerly, "We can do that."

Lester kept on with his advise, "Don't let her interview you separately and for heaven's sake don't give her any details she can pin down. Just claim excitement and Abby, play the blonde card if you have to."

"We can do this Abby." Connor grabbed her hand and they went up to the gate by the parking spaces, where Trudy Sterling was waiting on them. Becker was standing outside the little office on the outside of the gate they used to keep people in while waiting on approval to enter the facility.

"She's really a shrill one." Becker cautioned them, "She threatened to have me sacked if I didn't let her carry out her duties and snoop on you at work. Be careful."

"Thanks mate." Connor told him. Becker opened the door for them and stepped inside also.

Trudy Sterling was older, in her fifties with bleach blonde hair and a pink business suit. She had a face like a woman that had never worked outside a day in her life, but the wrinkle free aspect of it must be from botox, given her age. She was short, nearly as short as Abby and a little run to fat. Pudgy would be a good word to describe it.

She was sitting in one of the four chairs in the waiting room. She rose to her feet when they entered, "I'm Mrs. Sterling, are you Connor and Abby Temple?"

"Yes." Connor answered.

"No." Abby said at the exact same time. "I'm Abby Maitland, not Temple."

She pursed her lips at the latest irregularity. "I am your caseworker, I'll be popping in to see that everything's all right with little-" she flipped her file open quickly, "Madeline. I'll need to see her now, in fact."

"No." Abby denied the woman immediately. The older woman's eyes flashed angerly, "I am allowed to see any child during the course of my duties-" She started to protest hotly before Becker cut her off. "She means you can't enter the facility and see the daycare."

It was like a switch flipped. "Oh. I see. You both have classified jobs then?"

"Yes."

Mrs. Sterling glanced over at Becker standing in the corner. "You shouldn't be here for the interviews, they're supposed to be private."

He shrugged, "Facility policy. People without the proper clearance have to have a security person with them if they aren't completely isolated." He was playing the stodgy, order following guard to the hilt. Abby and Connor knew him well enough to know that he was lying off his ass. Sterling didn't.

She harrumphed, annoyed. "Mr. Temple, what exactly is it that you do?"

"That's classified."

"Give me a broad overview then. I assume from your dress you are not security?"

Connor glanced down at his clothes, "No. Computer specialist."

"Oh? Like tech support? Like if email won't load right?" She said that in a perfectly normal tone of voice and still managed to make it sound like she was sneering at him.

He smiled thinly at her. "Yes. Like tech support. They call me when the computers aren't working properly." That so far away from what he really did that Becker nearly broke cover and laughed.

Mrs. Sterling noted that down in her file and then turned to Abby. "Mrs. Maitland is it? What exactly do you do?"

"Classified." Abby wasn't giving up anything. All of her old hostility towards caseworkers came roaring back.

"Mr. Temple was able to tell me what he does in broad enough strokes I could write something down." Sterling narrowed her eyes at Abby. "I suggest you try the same."

Only Connor's slight squeeze on her hand as a warning not to go to war with this woman kept Abby from doing just that. "I work in a lab. I can't get more specific than that."

"Really? You don't look much like a scientist or a doctor. In fact, it says here your degree is in animal husbandry."

Abby sighed deeply. "I look after the lab rats," she lied. "I can't say anything else about it."

Sterling smiled like she had achieved a great victory. "This will go a lot easier if you just cooperate with me."

"Why exactly are you here?" Connor bluntly demanded, "Our adoption was finalized months ago."

"It shouldn't have been. There is simply tons of paperwork missing from your case. I can find no record of home visits, interviews, character references, it seems you decided you wanted a baby and poof! You got one." Sterling narrowed her eyes at them. "There are thousands of families in the UK that want a baby and you two simply...cut in line."

"We didn't break any laws!" Abby exclaimed. "Our adoption was perfectly legal and you've no cause to be sticking your nose in our business now!"

"Of course it was dearie...I'm merely here to fill in the gaps." Nobody in the room believed her for a second. "Now if you can go get the baby, I need to see she's normal and healthy before we proceed to the surprise home visit we have this evening."

"What home visit?"

"Surprise."

"Fine. We'll get her. It's nearly time to get off work anyway." Connor cut Abby off before she could really let the woman have it. "You'll have to wait here, and follow us home."

"I've got the address, I could meet you there." Sterling offered transparently, probably so they wouldn't have a chance to clean up, "There's really no reason for me to wait around in this box here."

Becker broke in, "We're still running your background checks. You'll stay here until I'm satisfied you are who you say you are. It shouldn't take more than an hour." Becker smiled her sweetly, "Be back soon."

The switch flipped again as Sterling flew into a rage, "You can't keep me locked up in here! I've got rights! This is false imprisonment and I'm just doing my job! You let me go this instant or I'll have you fired!"

The threats faded behind them as the door swung shut. "That woman is a harpy." Becker told them, shuddering. "She's going to cause trouble for you."

Connor was chewing on his knuckle. "Yeah, I don't know how we're going to get rid of her."

"If there's anything I can do to help." Becker offered. "Let me know."

"Yeah mate, there is. I need you to go to our place and get Rex, Sid and Nancy out of there. She can't see them. There's nothing else classified in the flat." Abby was spinning her house key off the ring as she was talking. "There's animal carriers by the washing machine on a shelf, throw some fruit in, they'll all go right in."

Becker was skeptical. "Will they really?"

"Yes, I've been working with them, in case I ever had to move them fast. Cut up a mango, toss a bit into each one and they'll race each other to get in." Abby reassured him. "Thanks."

"What are we going to do?" Abby fretted as they went down the elevator towards the main operations floor. She was pacing back and forth in the small space. Connor grabbed her hand and pulled her tight into a hug.

"Abby, listen to me," He reached up to cradle her cheek, "We'll get through this. We'll do her stupid interview, we'll fill out her stupid forms and we'll get through this. She'll see we're the best possible parents and she'll leave us alone." He was trying to be optimistic.

Abby knew better. She leaned into him. "That isn't how the system works Connor."

Then there was no more time for talking. They went to Lester's office to see if he could get this all dismissed before they got Madeline and showed her to that vile woman. He couldn't. He swore he would keep working on it tonight and that they might just have to ride this one out.

They got Madeline from the daycare and slowly made their way back upstairs. They waited in the hallway while Becker got off the phone. "My guys have your pets. Do you want them here?"

"Uh..."Abby thought, distracted, "They're not used to not being around people. I guess so."

Becker, seeing how incredibly worked up she was and how tightly she was clutching the baby made the offer, "I could look after them, if you like." He said generously, "It'll only be for a few days anyway."

She smiled, but it was only a shadow of her normal brilliant grin, "That would be nice, they'll be happier with you than here. They like to watch the telly and Rex likes to follow someone around all the time."

They were stalling. "I suppose we have to go in." Connor said dourly. Becker put his hand on the doorknob and hesitated, "She kept shrieking about false imprisonment and her rights for about five minutes after we left her." Becker cautioned them, "Watch her. She's the type to smile at you and stab you at the same time."

Connor groaned, "Great."

The three of them trooped back into the room. Sterling had a notepad out in front of her and she pinned Becker with a glare. "I'll want your name and service number! There will be an investigation into you holding me here!"

Becker merely arched an eyebrow at her and pulled out his security badge. He kept his hand over all the information except his name and ID number and allowed her to angrily copy it down. Now that her wounded pride was taken care of, she turned her attention to the actual reason she was here.

"Let me see her." She ordered Abby. Abby just shifted around so that Sterling could see her face. "No, give her here." Sterling demanded. "No." Abby said hotly. "Abby," Connor pleaded with her not to fight. The woman couldn't take or hurt the baby with all three of them there. Abby glanced back and forth between Connor and Sterling for a second before very very grudgingly letting Sterling hold Madeline.

Until then Madeline had been quietly looking around but she picked up on the tension in the room. When Sterling leaned in to examine her she started to cry. Sterling ignored the baby's wailing while she flipped the blanket back and examined her clothes. She harrumphed as she saw the purple outfit Abby had dressed her in that morning. There was a stain on it! They let her wear dirty clothes. She added that to her list against them.

At six months old the baby was about average size, but she would get a doctor to look at her just to be certain she wasn't underweight. She harrumphed again and passed her back. Abby rocked her and cooed to her to try and get her to stop crying.

Sterling whirled on Becker, "Can we all go now? I have an inspection to carry out."

He shrugged. "Maybe. If your documents have cleared." Sterling's eyes flashed anger but she didn't go off on another tantrum. Becker pulled out his phone and texted his men that he had sent to get the creatures. They were on their way back to the ARC.

"It seems that it has. You're free to go." He gave her the biggest most patronizing smile he was capable of.

O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

At the flat they did as they normally did. Maddy had fallen asleep in the car seat so Connor carried her in with the seat and set her down next to her swing. Sterling looked around and made notes on her clipboard. There were stairs with an open baby gate. Tick mark. One of the bedrooms was a loft style with only a half wall. That was very dangerous. Tick mark. None of the corners on the coffee table were padded. Tick mark. She felt very secure in her decision that this place was a death trap and completely justified in her previous decision to remove the child they had broken the law to obtain from this home.

While Abby was giving Madeline her evening bottle and Connor was fiddling around making dinner Sterling was on the phone to her police contact. "I'll need an escort. For the safety of the child." She already had a car seat waiting in the back of her car. The home inspection was really just a formality before she could remove the child. That was something she normally claimed to take no pleasure in but after they had falsely imprisoned her, she was looking forward to it.

Sterling was waiting by the door, pretending to take more notes when the police arrived. She had the front door open wide before Connor or Abby even realized that they were there.

"Who's here?" Abby started to say and then they came into the house. Her childhood came roaring back at her as she saw their uniforms, "No! No! You can't take my baby!" The officers were used to this and one of them peeled off to block Connor in the kitchen while the other one came around to Abby.

"Ma'am I have to," He pleaded, he hated domestic cases, "I have to, look, you'll have a court date and then you can tell it all to the judge yeah?"

Abby was backing up until she was against the wall. "NO! Leave her alone! This isn't right!" Dimly she heard Connor protesting from the kitchen.

"You have to tell it to the judge all right? Look, you're scaring her," The officer tried to calm her down. Sterling was by the door gloating at them and completely oblivious to Madeline wailing in fear. "Officers, hurry up. I have to get her to a proper home."

"No, no, no, no," Abby begged, "Don't take her, don't take my baby." Her legs went all trembly and she slid down the wall. The officer squatted in front of her. "Please miss. You can tell it to the judge but I have to take her now." He looked down at Madeline, "She's beautiful. What's her name?"

Abby looked at him with dull eyes and felt the old familiar sense of futility come rushing over her. "Madeline Sarah." She didn't resist anymore when he cautiously plucked her daughter out of her arms. "I'm sorry miss," he apologized. "Tell the judge, and you'll get her back."

Abby started crying then and she didn't move when they all left. She was barely aware of Connor running across the room and grabbing her. She crawled into his lap and kept crying. _They were never going to see her again. They were never going to get her back_. Those thoughts kept running around and around and around in her head and finally she just shut down and wept herself to sleep there on the floor cradled in Connors arms.

O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Author's note: I have no idea how the foster care system in the UK works. Everything I put in here I did for drama and to add a little stress to the happy couple. I'm sure real caseworkers bust their butts for little pay and less thanks to help the children in their care. I don't mean to slam them, but like Delores Umbridge gave all professors a bad name at Hogwarts, Trudy Sterling is going to be the caseworker from hell.

Please review!


	5. Chapter 5

This chapter is dedicated to Auntineenah, for gently reminding me people want to know how this ends. You can all thank her :)

o-o-o-o

In the aftermath left from the overwhelming arm of the law sweeping out of their flat, Connor did his best to pick up the shattered pieces of Abby's heart. He lifted her up off the floor and guided her over to the couch, stroking her gently as her sobs gradually tapered off.

"This is how it happens," she whispered as she was finally letting herself fall asleep. "They barge in and take and they don't care-" Abby moaned and buried her face in Connor's shirt. He made soothing noises and tried to block out how much this reminded him of when he was a kid and got home from school just as his mother found out that his dad had been killed in a freak accident. The hospital had phoned her, and left it to a twelve year old boy to deal with the aftermath.

Connor held her until he was certain Abby was asleep, then he slid out and took a few steps away, not letting his eyes linger on the empty baby swing or hear the unnatural silence of the house. He was dialing the one man that might possibly be able to fix this before he even stepped out of the room.

"This better be an emergency." Lester growled. "If you woke me up because you let the baby chew on your phone again-"

Connor interrupted him. "They took her."

He heard a shuffling sound that might be blankets rustling as Lester replied.

"What? Took her where? Why?"

Connor grabbed his hair and tugged, "I don't know! That caseworker bitch called the police and took Maddy! She said we would have to go to court! Abby's devastated, I've never seen her like this, she's gone to piece, she cried herself to sleep, Abby never ever does that! We have to get her back-"

"Of course we'll get her back." Lester positively snarled. "This has inner-department meddling written all over it. I'll make some phone calls. Connor, I promise, we'll get her back."

o-o-o-o

Lester tossed his phone back on the bedside table and stood up. He didn't need sleep anyway. In the time it took him to dress he thought and discarded a dozen different scenarios before settling on what had the most likely chance of success with a minimum of backlash. If it all worked out, he might actually come out of this ahead in the race of politics.

Of course, if it didn't, he'd probably be unemployed but he'd be a legend. Success either way.

He took a slight bit of pleasure at rousing Becker and giving him what little information he had. Becker was all for an armed assault on wherever they'd taking Maddy, but a slight bit of subtly was called for. Lester texted him Minister Truman's address and a few specific instructions. Foremost of which was to be as sinister and terrifying as possible. Becker would play that to the hilt.

Then he made a delicate inquiry of exactly where Becker had hidden Abby's semi-secret pets and why weren't they safely in the menagerie where they belonged?

o-o-o-o

An hour later Lester waited impatiently in his office for the protesting Minister to be escorted in. He was gratified to note that Naomi Truman was bursting with fury when Becker and his squad of grim faced soldiers hustled her into his office and rudely shoved her at the single chair across from his desk.

She did not sit.

"You! What is the meaning of this? You think you can send your goons out to kidnap people?" She jabbed a pointy finger in his direction and behind her Becker nearly ruined the moment trying not to laugh when she labeled him and his squad 'goons'.

"I'll have your job for this abuse of power, you petty bureaucratic flea-"

"Shut it." Lester cut her off as coldly as he could. "You are here because one of your people has broken the National Secrets Act and you are responsible. You will correct this mistake."

"You can't order me around-"

"You'll find I can and I will and I am." Lester stood up. "You've signed the National Secrets Act, it's required for anyone in your position. We're going to take a walk."

He strode past her with his back straight and shoulders square. Lester didn't have to look to know that the soldiers had fallen in behind her. They were taking a walk. She was angry enough not to ask questions until they stood outside Monty's pen. Lester opened the door and motioned her through. If looks could kill, he would be a floating pile of dust from the glare she gave him as she swept into the dark room.

Lester flicked the lights on. Monty was a heap of abruptly awakened mammoth. The beast cracked one eye opened and reached out with his trunk in the hopes they'd brought him some nice cabbage. His tusks looked especially impressive from six feet away.

"My god..." she raised one perfectly manicured hand to her face. "It's a bald mammoth!"

"Colombian mammoth," he corrected her. "That's what we do here."

"Genetic experiments! What did you do to that poor baby?" She whirled around at him and this time her pointy finger jabbed straight into his tie, mussing it. "This is illegal!"

"No! Perhaps this wasn't the best place to begin an explanation. Come along."

One of the soldiers tossed Monty his hoped-for cabbage and they left the creature contently munching on his midnight snack.

"Sir, if I may," Becker said with absolutely none of his usual insolence, "Perhaps Diana and Charles would be better?"

Lester eyed him. This was almost over the top deference. Becker was mocking him. Still, he adjusted his tie. "I was hoping to break it to her gently, but that would do it. Genetic experiments! Don't be ridiculous."

"Get on with this farce. It's the last few hours you'll spend in government service, I promise you."

"I think not."

Lester led her down past a few widely spaced doors to the very end of the corridor. Becker flicked on the light from the hallway and peered through the window in the door at the bright feeding room, covered with red stains on the cement floor. "It's clear, sir."

They went in. She surveyed the blood stains on the floor and the bars along one wall that separated them from the outside enclosure. The single gate was securely locked with a chain, quite visible from the door into the corridor. It smelled.

"What do you feed in this abattoir?"

The lights in their feeding room had summoned them out the darkness of their pen. Lester pointed outside at the pair of raptors that had stalked up with the stealthy grace of a true predator.

"Them."

She turned, and gasped. "What the fuck?"

The unexpected profanity slipping from her lips told Lester more than anything that he'd won.

He tried to sound as bored as possible when he answered her. "They're some sort of raptor, I can't recall exactly what species. I believe the larger one is the female, and the other is the male. My people have a particular sense of humor and thought it would be clever to name them after royals."

One of the raptors hopefully reached out with a delicate claw and yanked on the gate. It rattled. She jumped. Raptors were surprisingly expressive. It was very disappointed the gate wouldn't open.

"How-"

"We study a natural phenomena called anomalies. Rips in time. Sometimes creatures come through. Sometimes people come through. Sometimes people go through and we've got to rescue them before the anomaly closes and they're trapped with the likes of them. They don't last long, as you can imagine." He inclined his head at the hissing raptors. They were getting angry they couldn't get in and devour the fresh meat. One of them flipped up its hood and positively snarled at the puny humans.

Lester suppress his urge to shudder and kept his imperious tone. "Come along."

In stunned silence, she followed him out into the corridor and looked just as pale as he could hope for. That was the stick, now it was time for the carrot, Lester decided.

"I want to show you one more."

"Do you have a T-Rex back here somewhere?" He heard the tremble in her voice.

"No, no, although someday we might. We've dealt with them before." Airily, he led her down to another section. "Come on, these two creatures are menaces, but not dangerous."

This enclosure was only the size of a large room and a heap of dirt covered the middle.

"Sid, Nancy?"

It didn't take them long to emerge from the tunnels they'd happily dug. They saw one of their most favorite people and galloped over to him like a pair of excited spaniels. Naomi squeaked as they headbutted her shins, desperate for attention.

"They just want a scratch." Lester ignored Becker's smirk as he squatted down and rubbed Sid's head. "They're diictodons. Early Cretaceous. Too friendly for their own good, it's no mystery why they went extinct. Silly little buggers."

She crouched down and hesitantly touched Nancy's back. Nancy arched up into her hand like a cat and wiggled. "They're soft!"

"Yes. They're not bad, as far as dinosaurs go." He let her pat them for a few second and really think about the fact she was playing with a dinosaurs.

"Most creatures aren't as nice as these two idiots. We protect people from the creatures, and we protect the creatures from people. We return them to their own time when we can, but sometimes that's not always possible."

"I see." She stood up and wiped her hand off on her trousers while he started his actual explanation of what was going on.

"Months ago, a woman came through an anomaly from a much earlier time in human history. She had been badly mauled. She also had an infant with her."

"She died before the ambulance could arrive." Becker broke in. "She bled to death right in front of me, Jackson was there also-" he nodded at one of his men. "She wouldn't let us take her baby until she passed out."

"I assume this baby is why your goons escorted me here at two in the morning?" Naomi said dryly as they made their way back to Lester's office.

"Yes. We forged adoption papers for the infant." Lester freely admitted it. "One of your caseworkers has gone above and beyond in the call of duty and taken it upon herself to seize Madeline. I'm given to understand the caseworker believes her to be a kidnap victim. Mrs. Sterling hasn't got the necessary clearance to be told the truth but she's creating paperwork that you're going to have to bury if this isn't corrected quickly."

She faced him squarely. "However the child came into the country, proper procedures have to be followed. You just told some of your employees they could keep the baby like a stray kitten. If they weren't providing a suitable home-"

"If you let this go to court, I swear to you it will get ugly." Lester promised her. "They've done nothing wrong. Look at what your minion did before you start blaming my people for bringing this on themselves."

o-o-o-o

The goon squad kindly gave her a ride to Whitehall instead of her home where they'd roused her a few hours ago. At three in the morning, very few people were about and she didn't meet anyone as she made her way to her suite of offices. It didn't take long to find the preliminary report that Sterling filed, required in any case of emergency removal. There was nothing more embarrassing than a weeping mother on the evening news and the department spokesman being blindsided without any of the facts at hand.

As she read the petty argument for removing Madeline Temple, Naomi felt her blood boil. This was the weakest case against anyone. Honestly, they had a legitimate leg to stand on with the irregularities in the paperwork but to cite a lack of padding on a coffee table as a reason to remove a child? This was outrageous!

She had no doubt at all that Lester would make good on his threat if this went to court and his goon squad would follow his orders, even if they were of dubious legality.

There was proof enough of that already. Waking up to four stern-faced SAS men on her front porch and the fifth leaning on her doorbell was like something out of a spy movie. Their leader, Captain Becker, was still the only one she'd heard speak.

_"You have an appointment," he said grimly._

_"No, I don't." It was almost midnight. She wasn't going anywhere._

_"Yes, you do," he replied. _

Now dinosaurs were real and walking around in merry old England. She spared a moment to wonder about aliens and decided she didn't want to know. Paperwork she could squish. This Trudy Sterling woman might present a personnel problem, but she wasn't worth her job if she couldn't cow an underling into line, especially one that removed an infant on such a flimsy pretense.

Honestly, paperwork irregularities could be sorted out without removing children.

Step one, destroy the evidence.

o-o-o-o

Dawn broke. Birds sang. Life went on.

Connor hadn't slept. He sat at the kitchen table and didn't look towards the empty blanket on the floor. His tea had grown cold again and he didn't care. Every few minutes he glanced at his phone. There hadn't been a call or text all night. Lester's promise might as well have been a dream.

Then he heard Abby stirring around upstairs and he stood up to see how she was.

He was halfway up the stairs when he heard knocking on the door. Connor didn't let himself hope when he opened the door. A middle aged brunette woman in a rumpled business suit stared up at him.

"You're Connor Temple?"

"Yeah."

"I'm Naomi Truman. I understand you're missing someone?"

Naomi reached behind her and lifted someone out of cheap car seat. Connor felt his knees go weak as she passed him the grumbling baby. Maddy saw him and her face lit up. Just like quickly, her grumbling noises turned into laughter and she reached for him.

He hugged close and babbled as he yelled for Abby to come and see, Maddy was back. Abby flew down the stairs and shrieked. Maddy shrieked too, and then laughed some more as Abby took her and rocked her, bawling again, this time from happiness.

Naomi guided them all to the couch and shut the front door.

"Now we're going to do a proper home study," she said. "I'll be writing the report."

o-o-o-o

If Abby spent that day at work in the nursery refusing to put Maddy down, well, who could blame her? It wasn't like Emily wasn't capable of caring for the menagerie. She was on the books as Abby's assistant and relished the chance to prove she could do the job.

While Abby was off cuddling the baby, Becker told Connor about their adventures intimidating high ranking government officials. "She called me a goon several times. I was almost insulted. Almost."

Connor laughed and hugged him. "You can't imagine how horrible last night was, mate. I'm so glad it's over. She saw us feeding Maddy breakfast, you know how giggly she is in the morning, and promised she'd squish Sterling like a bug. She said kids are only taken into care if they're in danger. Sterling is just a petty bitch that likes to hurt people. I think she only did it because she could."

Lester stepped into Becker's office and heard that last bit.

"That's exactly right. I just heard from Minister Truman. She's moved that horrible woman into a position that has no contact or control of the children pending a review of her previous work that's probably going to cumulate with her being sacked and possibly charged if she's done this sort of thing before." They all had a cheer at that news, and he smirked.

"She also wanted to let me know that if the Menaces ever reproduce, god help us, she wants one. She used the word, 'adorable'."

Abby appeared in the doorway with Maddy sitting in her arms. "So it's over?"

"It's over." Lester confirmed with a smirk. "No one will bother you again."

She smiled widely and managed a one-armed hug that Lester pretended to tolerate. Maddy giggled and then managed to spit up on his shirt. Lester groaned and dabbed at the mess with a cap Becker left on his desk while Abby apologized and giggled with her daughter.

"That's my girl!" Connor said, grinning, while Becker bitterly protested the use of his uniform to clean up baby sick.

"Life is back to normal then." Lester decreed, abandoning the soiled cap and ignoring Becker's complaining. He called over his shoulder as he left, "Get back to work!"

THE END


End file.
